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Monday, 19 February 2007

5th International Bühl Bluegrass Festival

The Claire Lynch Band

On Saturday 5 May the biggest bluegrass festival in Germany, and one of the most important ones in Europe, will take place in Bühl (Baden). Walter Fuchs, country music historian, and MC and moving spirit of the festival, says:

'Due to the fact that this year's festival is the 5th and takes place at 05.05. we wanted a fourth "5" added, so we hired a fifth group instead of the four we had till this time... In 2007 the world of country music celebrates the 110th birthday of Jimmie Rodgers. So we have Roland Heinrich & the Jimmie Rodgers Experience as the fifth group. To me Heinrich, from Berlin, is the reincarnation of Jimmie Rodgers, and just by chance he found some European musicians who can play in the same style as the wild crew of artists that played with Rodgers in the '20s and '30s on lots of his recordings with instruments like Hawaiian steel guitar, banjo, musical saw, and tuba... With Claire Lynch we have one of the great female bluegrass singers of today.

'The Wilders come from Kansas City/Missouri with a wild sort of old-time music and the great songs of Roy Acuff, Hank Williams, and Lefty Frizzell. Turquoise from France plays the Festival the second time and brings along Holland's star fiddler Joost van Es. The German band Sacred Sounds of Grass is well known in Germany and all over Europe, and they are one of the eldest bluegrass bands in Germany that is still active and is still going strong.'

5 May begins in Bühl at 10.30 with a free open-air concert by Turquoise in the town's pedestrian area. Doors open at the main venue, the Bürgerhaus Neuer Markt, at 13.30 and the show begins at 14.00. For full details, with photos and details of all bands (in German), see the Festival website.